Post by diades on May 17, 2020 14:20:57 GMT
My name is Marianus Moschus, I serve in the Thematic Byzantine skoutati of the great general John Kourkouas' army in the year of our Lord 941. Igor of Kiev and his army of Rus dared attack our beloved city, but his navy was repulsed by a handful of brave ships cunningly deploying Greek fire under the command of Theophanes. Igor's troops now lay waste to our hinterland, so we have hurried back from the Mediterranean to deal with him.
Igor's wall of spearman lie ahead, as we look towards them their right is anchored against a large wood and slopes back off to the left. The woods are clearly swarming with archers. Igor and more spearmen wait behind.
I am standing between another unit of skutatoi to my left and a unit of archers on my right with their right against a small wood. I saw two units of our defensores kavallarioi move to the far side of that wood. Beyond my fellow skutatoi are many rear line kavallarioi, defensores kavallarioi and light horse, another wood and beyond more light horse. Our grave general is directly behind me with his elite cavalry.
The enemy's archers show themselves at the wood edge ahead, whilst our whole army advances. Igor seems to be happy to wait and eat carrot cake.
The enemy archers move back to the nearer front edge of the wood, our right wing wheels to point inwards, so they could charge along the front of the wood, where the archers lie in wait. Many of our lighter mounted vanish in clouds of dust up the left of the battlefield. Our foot advance with our general behind, whilst in the distance our left flank further advances.
Igor starts to split his battleline, to enable him to take a place in it, whilst sending more spearmen from the rear off to counter the threat of our light mounted left wing. Much more manoeuvring, and I find myself back in our starting line, with kavallarioi supporting the archers' flank, whilst their mounted comrades stand off against enemy archers at the far right of the woods ahead. We are lined up against the part of the enemy spearline now in front of the wood.
Finally we are given the order to attack. I find myself up against Rus spearmen, with my left supported unopposed and my right by kavallarioi against enemy spear. Beyond the skutatoi to my left our general heads straight for Igor, whilst deep kavallarioi and Rus spear clash beyond.
Woe! We back off, but those units either side of me stand firm, whilst our general also backs off, whilst the vast majority of our kavallarioi engaged left, flees. The Rus spear pursue, but our kavallarioi rally and return to the fray. The enemy to my front rejoin combat with more spear to our right and archers standing off from the support on my left.
Gradually the battle splits. We gain the upper hand and push both of the enemy spear into the woods and destroy them. Some of our deep kavallarioi to my rear left also destroy enemy spear. Meanwhile way off to the left light horse and spear clash near the field edge. The battle seems all, but won. John Kourkouas charges into Igor once more, who is supported by spear, but a unit of our own light horse also take Igor in the flank.
Disaster! Igor slays our general. Light horse on the far left are trapped and destroyed...suddenly the fight is in the balance. Our kavallarioi flee en masse way off left pursued by enemy spear. Locally we press our advantage into the wood to assist our own archers against lighter enemy equivalents to no avail. Then somewhere in the centre Igor pounces on a lone kavallarioi unit and traps it with more spear and destroys it. Time to leave the battlefield in defeat!
Was that the longest game of DBA ever? Over 2.5 hours. We thought it might be a long one...Extra drama as both mobile phone at one end and tablet at the other started warning of low battery! Fun though.
Igor's wall of spearman lie ahead, as we look towards them their right is anchored against a large wood and slopes back off to the left. The woods are clearly swarming with archers. Igor and more spearmen wait behind.
I am standing between another unit of skutatoi to my left and a unit of archers on my right with their right against a small wood. I saw two units of our defensores kavallarioi move to the far side of that wood. Beyond my fellow skutatoi are many rear line kavallarioi, defensores kavallarioi and light horse, another wood and beyond more light horse. Our grave general is directly behind me with his elite cavalry.
The enemy's archers show themselves at the wood edge ahead, whilst our whole army advances. Igor seems to be happy to wait and eat carrot cake.
The enemy archers move back to the nearer front edge of the wood, our right wing wheels to point inwards, so they could charge along the front of the wood, where the archers lie in wait. Many of our lighter mounted vanish in clouds of dust up the left of the battlefield. Our foot advance with our general behind, whilst in the distance our left flank further advances.
Igor starts to split his battleline, to enable him to take a place in it, whilst sending more spearmen from the rear off to counter the threat of our light mounted left wing. Much more manoeuvring, and I find myself back in our starting line, with kavallarioi supporting the archers' flank, whilst their mounted comrades stand off against enemy archers at the far right of the woods ahead. We are lined up against the part of the enemy spearline now in front of the wood.
Finally we are given the order to attack. I find myself up against Rus spearmen, with my left supported unopposed and my right by kavallarioi against enemy spear. Beyond the skutatoi to my left our general heads straight for Igor, whilst deep kavallarioi and Rus spear clash beyond.
Woe! We back off, but those units either side of me stand firm, whilst our general also backs off, whilst the vast majority of our kavallarioi engaged left, flees. The Rus spear pursue, but our kavallarioi rally and return to the fray. The enemy to my front rejoin combat with more spear to our right and archers standing off from the support on my left.
Gradually the battle splits. We gain the upper hand and push both of the enemy spear into the woods and destroy them. Some of our deep kavallarioi to my rear left also destroy enemy spear. Meanwhile way off to the left light horse and spear clash near the field edge. The battle seems all, but won. John Kourkouas charges into Igor once more, who is supported by spear, but a unit of our own light horse also take Igor in the flank.
Disaster! Igor slays our general. Light horse on the far left are trapped and destroyed...suddenly the fight is in the balance. Our kavallarioi flee en masse way off left pursued by enemy spear. Locally we press our advantage into the wood to assist our own archers against lighter enemy equivalents to no avail. Then somewhere in the centre Igor pounces on a lone kavallarioi unit and traps it with more spear and destroys it. Time to leave the battlefield in defeat!
Was that the longest game of DBA ever? Over 2.5 hours. We thought it might be a long one...Extra drama as both mobile phone at one end and tablet at the other started warning of low battery! Fun though.
